self-respecting spaceman _I_
ever knew would be caught dead in a silk undershirt or a silk anything
else! What d'you think those guys are, a bunch of women to go around
wearing sil--' He stopped abruptly, staring at the Kid with something
like awe. 'Do you think we can get 'er into something made of silk?'
he asked humbly, as befits a man when he speaks to a superior being.

"There was a respectful silence as the group waited for Mr. Paulson,
formerly the Kid, to speak.

"Mr. Paulson clapped his hand over his mouth, said 'Urp' between his
clenched fingers, turned a remarkable shade of green and looked about
him like a trapped animal. A few of his admirers led him through a
small door, no doubt to worship silently at his feet while he rested
after his soul-shaking ordeal. It was clear that Mr. Paulson had given
his all for the cause."

* * * * *

Lee said, "The door slid shut on Mr. Paulson's pain-racked exit, its
latching hiss drowned by the simultaneous demand of the committee,
individually, for the attention of the committee, collectively. Each
of them considered himself the sole person present capable of carrying
on the great work for which Mr. Paulson had so nobly sacrificed
himself. Ordinarily sedate doctors of this or that gibbered at each
other in an arm-waving, frenzied attempt to be heard.

"In a matter of seconds, half the committee had the other half backed
into chairs, against tables and into corners, earnestly explaining in
a conspiratorial roar just how Prunella was to be enticed into wearing
the silken booby-trap.

"The committee gradually shouted itself into a red-faced, thirsty
semi-hoarseness only to find a demon--ne Shulman, our top
botanist--guarding the inspirational keg with a heavy stool and
promising a swift and personal drought to any man who didn't shut up
on the spot. I need not say that we shut nor that order was fast in
coming among us.

"In the comparative quiet that followed, there was a rapid-fire
shifting of ideas, deleting some, adding to others, and Prunella was
doomed. The plot wasn't _too_ thick. It depended only on the fact that
an expert's eye was needed to detect the difference between sheer
Enduron, the newest and best of the synthetic fibers, and sheer silk.
By the same token, the reverse was true. That is, given silk, one
could easily mistake it for Enduron.

"The services of a woman on Terra were necessary to us, so Sparks
magnanimous